Banksia Ilicifolia - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

See also: Taxonomy of Banksia More usual reddish flowers.
Perth Rough bark.
Perth

Specimens of B. ilicifolia were first collected by Scottish surgeon Archibald Menzies during the visit of the Vancouver Expedition to King George Sound in September and October 1791, but this collection did not result in the description of the species. It was next collected by Robert Brown in December 1801, during the visit of HMS Investigator to King George Sound. The species was also drawn by the expedition's botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer. Like nearly all of Bauer's field drawings of Proteaceae, the original field sketch of B. ilicifolia was destroyed in a Hofburg fire in 1945. A painting based on the drawing survives, however, at the Natural History Museum in London.

Brown eventually published the species in his 1810 work On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae. The specific name is derived from the Latin words ilex "holly" and folium "leaf", hence "holly-leaved". In 1810, Brown published Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen in which he arranged the genus into two unranked groups. B. ilicifolia was placed alone in Isostylis because of its unusual dome-shaped inflorescences. All other species were placed in Banksia verae, the "true banksias", because they have the elongate flower spike then considered characteristic of Banksia.

The shrubby, coastal ecotype was published as a separate species Banksia aquifolium by John Lindley in his 1840 A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony, but this is now regarded as a taxonomic synonym of B. ilicifolia. A specimen collected by Ludwig Preiss on 13 April 1839 from coastal sands in Perth was described as Banksia ilicifolia var integrifolia in Bentham's Flora Australiensis in 1870, but has not been recognised since. B. ilicifolia is variable in form, although the variations are not consistent enough to warrant recognising infraspecific taxa. Adult leaf margins can be entire or serrate (like holly), and can both be present on the one plant. Populations from the south coast have larger flowers and leaves, but some trees in the north of the range also have large flowers and leaves.

Otto Kuntze challenged Banksia L.f. on the grounds that Banksia J.R.Forst & G.Forst had been published before it, and transferred all Banksia taxa to the new name Sirmuellera. Thus, B. ilicifolia became Sirmuellera ilicifolia (R.Br.) Kuntze. Kuntze's challenge did not gain wide acceptance, and Banksia L.f. was formally conserved against future challenges in 1940.